Friday, June 30, 2017

Well, it depends what you mean by “retreat.” When I was younger one of my dreams was to take a little boat up and down the Amazon. Go exploring by day, writing at night. Now that I’m older and more into the creature comforts that dream doesn’t quite have the allure it used to.

And like Susan, Hawaii sounds nice. But I’ve spent a lot of time there over the years. I even wanted to live there for a time (actually I did live there…sort of…for a time). And while it might be nice to go back I don’t think I’d want to go there for my retreat.

Ireland might be nice. That’s someplace I haven’t been that I’d like to go – I like rainy weather. And I have a good friend from the old days who moved there. She might be able to put me up – and put up with me for a month. Maybe…

Another place I want to go so bad I can taste it, as my mom used to say, is Istanbul. I have this thing about Roman history and would love to go there to see Byzantium history. But I’m not sure it’s the place I would go for a peaceful writer’s retreat.

"Istanbul (Not Constantinople)"

There’s always Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, but with my luck The Thing from Another Planet would rear its carrot-topped head and have me for brunch. Until that happened I suppose it would be quiet and peaceful. Though that would probably make it a little too spooky to write.

Superman at the Fortress of Solitude. (Can Jerry Seinfeld be far behind?)

I used to SCUBA dive. And it’s pretty quiet and peaceful under water (unless you’re being eaten by a shark or being shot at from a boat above), but probably a little hard to write a whole novel on a diver’s slate. Though it’s a thought.

I’ve also heard that the Overlook Hotel in Colorado is a good place for a writer to retreat to. Quiet and peaceful in the off season.

The serene writer on retreat at the Overlook Hotel.

If I could time travel like Owen Wilson did in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, there’s a couple places I might go: Shakespeare and Company in Paris, itself. Though with the ghosts of Sylvia Beach and Hemingway it might be a little too spooky to get much writing done there. Still, if I went there I could always say, “We’ll always have Paris.” And Raymond Chandler’s 1940s L.A. Though between Bugsy Siegel, Jack Dragna and Mickey Cohen and the bullets flying it might not be the best place to write either.

So, where would I ultimately go? I would book a cabin on a cargo ship/freighter. Many of them carry passengers, but usually only up to twelve. I love the sea. For the most part it would be peaceful and quiet as opposed to a regular cruise ship which is my idea of hell with nowhere to go. I’d bring a laptop and tablet, lots of books and movies. And Amy and the dogs. Now I know in reality you’re not allowed to bring dogs unless you ship them as cargo, but since this is my fantasy I can do whatever I want – and damn it, the dogs are coming!

Thursday, June 29, 2017

You’ve won a month-long, all-expenses-paid writing retreat.
Where would you go and why?

By Catriona.

I'm not much of a one for writing retreats. My ordinary life is more like a retreat than most retreats I've ever considered. I live in a house in the country. It's empty all day. A man who can cook comes in at six . . .

But in 2015 I did go on an accidental writing retreat for a week and I was at least three weeks off being sick of it when I had to leave.

The man who cooks was committed to a week-long conference on tomato spotted wilt virus and its vector, the dastardly thrips. (SIDEBAR: plant pathology jamborees can get wayyyyy specific. (SIDEBAR TO SIDEBAR: plant-pathology disease-naming is not very creative. Guess what tomato spotted wilt virus does? Also, there's a rot that turn the ends of potatoes rubbery. Guess what it's called.))

The problem was I had a broken arm, couldn't dress myself couldn't cook much, couldn't drive and couldn't bathe without someone to help me put on the waterproof arm-bag.

So I chummed along. To a retreat at the Asilomar Conference Grounds on the Monterey peninsula. It's a beautiful sprawling 100 acres of pine trees and sand, with buildings designed by Julia Morgan, in the Arts and Crafts style. It was a YWCA until the Great Depression, soldiers' accommodation during WWII, and now it's heaven.

Our room was at the upstairs corner of this building, with a desk under the window.

And I could pop down here for a walk to think about plot points:

Best of all, a bell rang at seven, at noon, and at six and meals were served in the dining hall:

I had to share a table with people talking about tomato spotted wilt virus but - honestly? - that got to be like the plinky music in a spa.

And they really did talk about it all the time. There was a meeting of the Western Ukulele Confederation also having a get-together at Asilomar just then and within a couple of days they were writing songs about tomato spotted wilt virus.

So, anyway, if I had to go on a month's writing retreat, that's where I'd go. Or a castle in Scotland. Or a flat in London. Or - ooh-ooh - Hawaii! As things stand, though, Starbucks it is.

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

You’ve won a month-long, all-expenses-paid writing retreat.
Where would you go and why?

My last cruise - yes, it was great!

You’d think this would be easy, wouldn’t you? No money
worries. Anywhere in the world. But where to go? Somewhere I’ve been before,
know well and would love to revisit? But would I then really use that time as a
writing retreat, or would I be “distracted”? So maybe somewhere I haven’t been
before? Same problem – plus the need to explore.

There are so many fabulous places in the world, but the
point of a retreat is to be inward looking, thinking about the writing,
inspired to write and ACTUALLY WRITING! I can’t cope with any distractions when
I’m writing. Dark, silent rooms (yeah, yeah, with the lights on!) work best for
me.

I’d have to have Internet access, to allow for research. I’d
like all my food brought to me, and not have to think at all about keeping my
digs clean and tidy – I’d like that done for me, please. And I’d like to be
able to join in writing-unrelated society when I want to.

I love the library on a ship

Okay, I’ve got it. A suite on a cruise ship, with all the
facilities I could possibly need to not have to interact with people at all when
I choose (so my own little plunge pool at least on a sunny deck, please) and a
butler to fetch and carry whatever refreshments I desire. And a good library. And fast Internet. And a gym. And lots of places where I can sit and watch the wake in the moonlight, and gaze at the stars.

I’d like lots of days at sea when I can stare at the horizon (almost as good as a
writing room at night) and some interesting ports of call with historical
interest, galleries, a bit of shopping, you know the sort of thing. Oh, and
good weather, please. Yes, that’ll do me, thanks. So maybe a couple of trips
from Vancouver to the Hawaiian Islands? That takes about two weeks with lots of sea days (I did it for my honeymoon), so I’d just
stay on board and do it twice! I won't even need to change butler. Thanks for the offer…I’ll take it!

My favorite view from a ship!

Cathy Ace is the Bony Blithe Award-winning author of The
Cait Morgan Mysteries (#8 The Corpse with the Ruby Lips was released on
November 1st) and The WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries (#3, The Case of the
Curious Cook, was released in hardcover in the UK on November 30th and in the
USA & Canada on March 1st).You can
find out more about Cathy, her work and her characters at her website, where
you can also sign up for her newsletter with news, updates and special offers: http://cathyace.com/

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

You've won a
month-long, all-expenses-paid writing retreat. Where would you go and why?

Oh mannnnn...

First off, what's the catch? Is there a per diem regardless
of expenses, or do I have to submit receipts? Is there a cap? And if I don't
get any writing done must I pay it all back?

Okay, no catch. The question is not where you would go for a
vacation, but for a writing retreat. I've never had one, but I'm guessing it means a place you go to get respite from the
stresses of everyday life, commit yourself to your work, expand your mind, be
inspired, and get the words flowing.

In that case, my answer would either be an apartment in
North Vancouver, where my characters are living and working, in order to breathe
the same air as they do, and get better acquainted with where they live and what
makes them tick...

... or ROAD TRIP! Rent a camper van and travel from west
coast to east. Unplug and get to know my country the old-fashioned way, on the
ground, calling home from payphones and dining in style at roadside picnic
tables. I might not get much writing done, but how inspiring that would be!

Even if what I garner from my road trip doesn't directly figure
into my stories -- they're police procedurals, not travelogues -- I think it would expand my
writing skills in a big way. It's like learning to draw anatomically correct
figures before painting abstract, or studying music theory only to end up jamming in a
garage band -- not mandatory, but how can it hurt?

Either of the above options would be a fabulous kick-start for
me, if we're talking writing. For a regular vacation, on the other hand, I
wouldn't mind a lake and loons.

Monday, June 26, 2017

Q: You’ve
won a month-long, all-expenses-paid writing retreat. Where would you go and
why?

- from Susan

A: Oh, this is so easy. A specific cottage on the
north shore of Kauai, with bare, painted floors, an outdoor shower, and the
sounds and sight of the Hanalei River at the edge of the lawn.The sound of slack key guitar music from the
CD, the local farmers market produce and fragrant flowers nourishing me, and
the demands of a publisher’s deadline to keep me from simply melting in to the
healing atmosphere.

I’ve been there, done that, and finished the first
good draft of Love & Death in
Burgundy there. Three weeks, but I wouldn’t say no to a full month. In
fact, just thinking about it is slowing me down…I can smell the plumaria and
taste the papaya.

Friday, June 23, 2017

Your assignment: You must novelize a popular TV show, past or present. The catch: you must change its genre. What show and what new genre? Give us a taste of the plotline and character arcs.

By now, everyone knows that I love Chicago, and I intend to mine it's dramatic and comedic riches in perpetuity. So I have to pick a popular television show and novelize its plot and characters. Seems simple enough, except I generally avoid all things on television that depict my city, because I don't mind telling you—and risking the ire of folks in the industry I may have to encounter down the road—this current wave of Chicago-based shows frickin' stinks.

See, my hometown needs a realistic crime drama. One where all the plots and subplots aren't played by beautiful twenty-somethings from everywhere but Chicago. Where the cops don't come with perfect abs and a decided absence of push broom mustaches. Where partners aren't making love in the shower because it's against the rules but also as the job makes you hideous. Oh, and where the chief isn't the only black person in the squad house in a city that is evenly divided between black folk, Latinos and varying flavors of ethnicities that identify as white on the census but are everything but Anglo-Saxon.

It also needs a medical drama, where the doctors aren't idealistic, the nurses aren't all perfect white feminists (even if they're dudes,) the administrators aren't all hard-driven numbers people, and the emergency rooms don't run like clockwork taking care of patients who can actually afford the care. Where alcoholics are fired and don't come back in big reunion episodes.

For reasons of legacy, and that the current fire department show makes me cringe, it needs a firefighter or two that represents the community where actual people live. No one has PTSD from a run gone bad. No hotshots bearing a grudge who take too many risks but get results because, truth told, being a Chicago firefighter is one sweet ass gig. At least until you're holding a hose or swinging an ax after November when ten-below feels like a heat wave. Where there are real rules for staying alive while saving other people's lives. Where again, there are a lot more black folks in the firehouse than the chief, because there's really only one chief, everyone else in charge is a captain or lieutenant and ranks are rarely spoken aloud because it's corny and damn who is writing this shit and why didn't they hire me and lemme stop grousing now.

Oh, and get some legal drama action in there. Where the prosecutors were born, raised, educated, licensed and employed only in Illinois. You know, like how it works normally. Where city, state, and county buildings actually look like places that drain you of your soul, not to mention the color in your cheeks. Courtrooms need to be bathed in gray paint and fluorescent light, making everything and everyone look hideous. Where there isn't an Atticus Finch or Clarence Darrow or Thurgood Marshall or Notorious RBG in sight.

Finally, nothing—and I mean absolutely nothing—should occur north of Division Street, and I frickin' mean it. No shooting exteriors in the safe neighborhoods in Andersonville or Irving Park and passing them off as the South side. Oh, y'all g'on see some black folk in Danny Gardner's drama. And some white folk who look like they actually dwell amongst them. No Mexican actors being cast as Puerto Ricans from Humboldt Park, and no gorgeous Spaniards being passed off as true Chicago Vatos either. We keepin' it true to the Windy.

So seeing that I can't get all of that from any of the Chicago-based (ha!) television shows of the present, I have to dig into the past. Ladies and germs, I give you the next great series novelization:

GOOD TIMES, by Danny Gardner.

James Evans returns from a years long, deep SpecOps mission the Middle East with the burning desire to put his family back on track and get them out of the projects. Unfortunately, the Chicago Housing Authority and their construction demolition contractors beat him to it. He finds everyone scattered:

Florida earned her nursing degree from Everest College before the government shut it down (for those frickin' commercials) and now works at Cook County Hospital, which really ain't E.R., Gray's Anatomy, St. Elsewhere, wherever. She's dealing with the latest influx of shooting victims, which are always routed there, even though there are university-affiliated hospitals on the South side but they won't allow ambulances to route the gang injured to their facilities.

J.J. didn't finish art school but instead became a cop on the tactical squad. The jokes stopped. He's quick with the excessive force. Nothin' funny about that.

Michael is a lawyer in the State's Attorney's office, his idealism beaten out of him by a corrupt system that's rigged against the most vulnerable. He thinks about running for mayor, but no one in their right mind would want that job.

Thelma owns and operates a small chain of hair and nail shops in the city. She's trying to pick up the pieces since Keith was cut from the Chicago Bears after he led the season in yards but was then busted for performance-enhancing drugs.

Wilona is a three-term alderman who is vying for a Senate seat. Her and Florida fell out over her lack of support for Barack Obama during his presidential campaign. She actually married Bookman, the superintendent of their old project building. She still calls him Bubble Butt. He doesn't mind. She pays the bills so she can call him whatever she wants.

I figure I could squeeze about seven novellas out of this one. Maybe even sell the television rights. Then I'd executive produce and show run and write the pilot and white-knuckle grip the entire production so that a Chicago drama actually resembles Chicago.

Thursday, June 22, 2017

Your assignment: You must novelize a popular TV show, past or
present. The catch: you must change its genre. What show and what new genre?
Give us a taste of the plotline and character arcs. (Example: Turning I Love
Lucy into a serialized thriller series similar to 24.)

BARNEY
So, Ange, Thelma Lou and I were planning to go to the
movies on Saturday, and we were wondering if you and—

The door to the jail opens and OTIS THE DRUNK stumbles in, covered in blood.
He goes directly to the hook on the wall, removes the key to a cell, and opens
up the cell. Then he closes the door behind him.

ANDY
Howdy, Otis. Ain’t it a bit early for you to be
visitin’?

OTIS
I’m guilty, guilty, guilty. I kilt them all!

Barney gets up, rushes over to the cell.

BARNEY
Ha! I knew it was you! Who have you killed now, you
worthless slob?

ANDY
Easy, Barney. Otis is just talkin’. Ain’t that right?

OTIS
No, Sheriff. I really did it. I killed everyone. See all
the blood? It ain’t mine.

Otis flops on cot, and Barney stalks over to Andy’s desk.

BARNEY
Listen, Ange, Otis hasn’t been right lately. This
whole town ain’t been right lately. Those three people mauled to death last
week. Four others gone missing. Something serious has been happening around
here, and we’ve finally got the confession we need! We need to transfer Otis to
maximum security over to Mount Pilot!

ANDY
Otis is just exaggerating. Probably shot a deer, is all.
You’re getting a little wound up, don’t you think? This is Mayberry. Nothing bad
happens around here.

BARNEY
What about the two beheadings week before last? And
what about Floyd’s throat being cut? That bad enough for you, Ange!

ANDY
Barney, I think you’re right near foaming at the mouth.
Why don’t you take Thelma Lou out for a nice supper, keep your mind from
worrying?

BARNEY
I’ve been keeping track. Over the last three months,
twenty-four people have been murdered and another eighteen are missing. And the
perpetrator is right under our noses! Otis just confessed. You need to arrest
him. Take action!

Andy strokes his chin, looks off into the distance.

ANDY
You might be on to something, Barn. But this needs some
more thought. I’m going home to enjoy whatever Aunt Bea has whipped up for
dinner. Make sure Opie’s done his homework. Then maybe I’ll sit on the porch and
think a spell.

BARNEY
It’s Otis, Ange! The murderer in our midst is Otis! He
confessed! He’s covered in blood! There’s a knife sticking out of his
pocket!

Andy gets up, puts his hat on.

ANDY
You’re in charge. Got yer bullet?

Barney taps his shirt pocket.

BARNEY
Got it.

ANDY
Good. Now don’t do anything rash. We’ll figure this all
out, and then we can get an ice cream soda down at that new place opened up on
Main Street. Sounds mighty good to me!

Andy leaves. Barney waits until the door shuts, then fumbles the bullet out
of his pocket. Drops it on the floor. Picks it up and with a shaking hand
finally manages to load it into his gun. Then he tiptoes over to the jail cell
where Otis lies on his cot, snoring. He raises the gun. Aims.

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Your assignment: You must novelize a popular TV show, past or present. The catch: you must change its genre. What show and what new genre? Give us a taste of the plotline and character arcs. (Example: Turning I Love Lucy into a serialized thriller series similar to 24.)

by Dietrich Kalteis

I don’t watch much TV nowadays, so I’ll look at some shows I loved when I was a kid. Although writing a modern take on the exploits of Maxwell Smart while changing the genre might not work … well, definitely the shoe phone showing up as an iShoe would need some rethinking. And turning Hollywood Squares into a whodunit where one of the squares goes missing isn’t likely to win a Scribes Award.

While novelizing an existing series seems a little like working backwards, I can see how it would capitalize on its branding. Also, there have been many popular novels that have spun from TV shows like the different CSI series, Monk, Star Trek, Batman, Superman, 24, Monk, Murder She Wrote, the X-Files and a long list of others.

Since I write about crime, I’ll stick to that and draw from the many cop shows from back in the day, ones that inspired me to write crime stories in the first place. Shows like The Rockford Files, Baretta, Mannix, Hill Street Blues, Police Story, and Hawaii Five-O.

Barney Miller was one of my favorite cop sitcoms that ran from ’75 to ’82 and took place mostly in a detective squad room, with some hilarious characters, bad coffee and a single jail cell. It was a well-written series, and the only existing novelization I could find was Fish Strikes Out by T.J. Hemming. The book was based on the ABC series Fish, which was a spinoff from the original series, and which starred Abe Vigoda. And writing about the interaction between a bunch of oddball cops and the strange characters that wander into the squad room seems right up my alley.

The Job was another cop sitcom that ran from 2001–2 that I enjoyed. It starred Denis Leary, playing Mike McNeil, a hard-drinking New York detective with his own unique twist on fighting crime who juggles the chaos of married life and a girlfriend on the side. Alongside an interesting squad of characters, this could work as a novel.

The Avengers series from the early sixties also came to mind, and I found that several novels have spun from it. John Peel who wrote the original TV series also wrote Too Many Targets, based on the series, and he wrote other novels under several pseudonyms based on Doctor Who, Star Trek and James Bond. The popularity of The Avengers led to a French TV commercial for champagne with Macnee and Thorson reprising their roles. The success of the ad led to a remake of the original series in ’76, running in Canada as The New Avengers. If I novelized it I’d leave the genre alone, but I might set it in modern-day Vancouver. Emma Peel was perfect, and Steed had that umbrella (something he’d need here), although his character could use a bit of a makeover. I’d let him keep the saber in the umbrella, but instead of the Savile Row suit, I’d deck him out in something by Brooks Brothers, take away the gas-guzzling Rolls and give him a Tesla. Then I’d have the pair attempting to bust up a smuggling ring at the ports, throw in some dark humor and sexual tension, while trying to keep that cool jazzy air from the original show.

Columbo, yup loved this, and the original character showed up in a number of novels: The Columbo Collection was a series of stories written by the show’s co-creator William Link. There was even a novel based on the show published in Sweden and another in Japan. The show’s star Peter Falk also contributed to The Cop Cookbook — arresting Recipes from the World's Favorite Cops, Good Guys, and Private Eyes. I haven’t checked it out, but Peter Falk’s recipe ran right alongside ones by Clint Eastwood, Dennis Franz, Angie Dickenson, Tom Sellick, Jack Webb, Tommy Lee Jones, Francis McDormand, James Garner, and more.

A couple more shows that came to mind: The Saint starring Roger Moore, which originally came from a series of books by Leslie Charteris, published between 1929 to 1963. And The Man from U.N.C.L.E. which ran from ’64 to ’68 also inspired two dozen novels. Real Cold War stuff. And I already mentioned Get Smart, which inspired about a dozen novels.

Social issues were handled more delicately on TV during the seventies, but All in the Family, while not a cop show, tackled them head on. Nothing was off limits, and its anti-hero Archie Bunker was the poster boy for racism and homophobia. A man who was cynical and politically incorrect at every turn while his wife Edith was his polar opposite, a cross between little miss sunshine and the voice of reason. As far as I can tell, this one was never novelized, but it could work.

In recent times, there have been a number of incredible cable series like Breaking Bad, The Wire, Justified, Deadwood, Better Call Saul,Six Feet Under and The Sopranos. Of course, Justified sprang from Elmore Leonard’s stories Fire in the Hole, Pronto, Riding the Rap and Raylan. Some very talented creators and writers like Vince Gilligan, David Simon, Ed Burns, George Pelecanos, Graham Yost, David Milch, Alan Ball have given us some great story lines and characters, and I think any of these would translate well into novel form.

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Your assignment: You must novelize a popular
TV show, past or present. The catch: you must change its genre. What show and
what new genre? Give us a taste of the plotline and character arcs. (Example:
Turning I Love Lucy into a serialized thriller series similar to 24.)

Do you
remember the eighty’s TV show Moonlighting starring Cybil Shepherd and Bruce
Willis before he headed off to the big screen? The two of them ran the Blue
Moon Detective Agency and didn’t always get along. There was one particularly
memorable episode that I still chuckle over. The storyline was based on
Shakespeare’s play The Taming of a Shrew
and had everyone dressed in the ornate garb of Shakespeare’s time. I can still picture Bruce Willis as Petruchio,
the aspiring suitor, arriving to court his unwilling bride, the headstrong Katherina
played by Cybil. Garbed in velvet and satin with a floppy medieval hat, Bruce
rides up on a horse that was wearing a blanket with a BMW logo and enormous sunglasses
perched on its nose. The dialogue was a mix of famous lines from various Shakespearean
plays and the modern dialogue of running a detective agency. The show was
hilarious and a marvelous example of cross-pollinating into another genre, if
Shakespeare could be called a genre.

Though not directly
answering this week’s question, I thought I would explore the Shakespearean
plays that could be used for some of the TV shows I’ve watched over the years.

In some
respects Downton Abbey could provide a good cast for King Lear. We have a
father with three daughters and a magnificent estate that has an heir problem. But
it seems unfair to give the Earl of Grantham the tortured soul of a King Lear.
He’s too nice. Nor do Lady Mary and Lady Edith have the evil in them to do what
Regan and Goneril did to their father, King Lear and their sister, Cordelia.

But I think
it would be fun to take the cast of MASH away from the Korean War for a few
hours and put them into the fantasy world A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, where everyone is falling in love with the wrong
person. I think Klinger would make a
marvelous Puck, the mischievous sprite who concocts a magic potion to make a
person fall in love with the first living being they see upon waking up. Frank Burns would be a perfect bumbling Bottom,
a member of an acting group. Hawkeye, because he is top dog and has a devilish
streak, will be Oberon, King of the Fairies and ‘Hot Lips’ Houlihan, his queen,
Titania. I’ve used Hot Lips only because
she was the only female with a major role during the 13 years of the shows run.
A comment on the times, eh? The other cast members will fill the various star
crossed lover roles and the acting group of the play within the play.

And so we
have Hawkeye upset with Hot Lips ordering Klinger to make this magic potion and
give it to her. Hot Lips falls asleep in the forest while the play within a
play takes place. She awakens. And the first living thing she sets eyes on is
Bottom wearing the head of a donkey. She falls in love and so the fun begins.

Though love
isn’t exactly a theme of NCIS Los Angeles, there is the undercurrent with Deeks
and Kensi and Sam is always trying to get Callen a girlfriend, so I think the high
jinx going on in Much Ado About Nothing
would work. Deeks and Kensi could be Benedict and Beatrice, who are afraid to
admit they love each other. Callen could be Claudio who is searching for love
and finds it in Hero, who could be played by Nell which would be interesting. Sam is Don Pedro, a prince from Aragon and I’ll
have Hetty take on the role of Don John, his bastard brother, only because he
is the one pulling all the strings and causing such confusion.

In short
Callen falls in love with Nell and proceeds to woo her, but Hetty intervenes
and sets it up so that it looks as if Sam is also going after her. Meanwhile a
matchmaking scheme is hatched by Sam to get Deeks and Kensi to admit their love
to each other. But like anything that has to do with Shakespeare none of it
goes smoothly.

I am sure
many of Shakespeare’s plays could be applied to other TV shows, but I’ll stop
here and let you digest these three possibilities.

And to switch to some blatant self promotion, the next Meg Harris mystery, Purple Palette for Murder, is available for pre-order and will soon
be out on Netgalley for reviews.

Q&A with Criminal Minds!

Question of the Week

Each week the crime fiction authors of Criminal Minds respond to a question about writing, reading, murder and mayhem.Question of the Week:

As a writer, what do you make of readers who flip to the end and see what happens last first?

Join the Community

Mondays with Susan

Susan C. Shea debuts a new series, a French village mystery, Love & Death in Burgundy in spring 2017 (St. Martin's Minotaur). The third in her Dani O'Rourke series came out in Feb. 2016. She lives in Marin County, CA.

Mondays with Terry

Terry Shames writes the Macavity Award-winning Samuel Craddock series, set in small-town Texas. In 2015 BookPeople dubbed her one of the top five Texas mystery authors.

Tuesdays with RM

RM Greenaway has worked in nightclubs, darkrooms, and courthouses. She writes the B.C. BLUES crime series, featuring RCMP detectives Leith and Dion. Her first novel COLD GIRL, winner of the 2014 Arthur Ellis Unhanged award, will be released 26 March 2016.

Tuesdays with R.J.

R.J. Harlick is the author of the acclaimed Meg Harris mystery series set in the wilds of Quebec. Her love for Canada’s untamed wilds is the inspiration for her series. The 4th book, Arctic Blue Death, was a finalist for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel.

Wednesdays with Cathy

Cathy Ace writes the globe-trotting Cait Morgan Mysteries, (Bony Blithe winner 2015 - Agatha’s Canadian cousin), and the WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries, set in her native Wales. She lives in rural British Columbia.

Wednesdays with Dietrich

Dietrich Kalteis is the award-winning author of Ride the Lightning, The Deadbeat Club, Triggerfish and House of Blazes. His newly completed novels, Zero Avenue and Poughkeepsie Shuffle are slated for release in 2017 through his publisher ECW Press. Nearly fifty of his short stories have been published internationally, and his screenplay Between Jobs is a past-finalist in the Los Angeles Screenplay Festival. He lives with his family in West Vancouver, British Columbia and is currently working on his next novel.

Thursdays with Catriona

Catriona McPherson is the Anthony, Agatha, Macavity, IndieFab and Lefty winning author of the DANDY GILVER series set in Scotland in the 1920s, as well as two darker stand-alones AS SHE LEFT IT and THE DAY SHE DIED. Catriona lives in northern California with a black cat and a scientist.

Thursdays with Jim

James W. Ziskin (Jim to his friends) is the author of the Edgar-, Anthony-, Barry-, Lefty-, and Macavity-nominated Ellie Stone Mysteries. He's 6'2", weighs 200 pounds, and writes like a girl.

Fridays with Paul

Paul D. Marks pulled a gun on the LAPD...and lived to tell about. A former "script doctor," Paul's novel WHITE HEAT is a 2013 SHAMUS AWARD WINNER. Publishers Weekly calls WHITE HEAT a "taut crime yarn." Paul is also the author of over thirty published short stories in a variety of genres, including several award winners. GHOSTS OF BUNKER HILL, from the 12/16 Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, was voted #1 in the 2016 Ellery Queen Readers Poll.

Fridays with Danny

Danny Gardner's work has appeared in Beat to a Pulp, Out of the Gutter, and Literary Orphans Journal. His first novel, A NEGRO AND AN OFAY, will be released May 2017 by Down And Out Books. His short fiction will be featured in JUST TO WATCH HIM DIE, a Johnny Cash inspired anthology, published by Gutter Books in Winter 2016.